“横滨三年展”是日本重要当代艺术展，也是亚洲最重要的三年展之一。2017年第六届“横滨三年展”于8月4日开幕。中国艺术家赵赵受邀参展，他的作品《塔克拉玛干计划》、《西装》、《碎片》在横滨美术馆展出，其中，《塔克拉玛干计划》的摄影照片被选为2017年“横滨三年展”海报背景图。在“横滨三年展”的官方网站与Facebook上，赵赵被誉为“2017横滨三年展的亮点之一”、“首次被正式介绍到日本的年轻艺术家”。
2015年10月，赵赵在新疆开始实施《塔克拉玛干计划》。他和30余人的工作团队由北京出发，带着100公里的四芯电缆和一台冰箱，行驶近4000公里，抵达塔克拉玛干沙漠北部后，将其用改装后的 “探路者号” 沙漠车运往沙漠。为了通过严格的检查制度，赵赵扮演成包工头、广告片导演等角色，不断与人周旋。到达轮南镇后，他们从维吾尔族生活区中接通电源，以此为起点，将电缆往沙漠中心方向延伸，全程耗时23天，共使用了10台变压器，以减少低压电能的输送损失。电缆尽头，一台装满新疆啤酒的双开门冰箱成功地被通电打开，在空旷无人的沙漠腹地运行了24个小时。而后100公里电缆、变压器和冰箱一同被运回北京，电缆被严格按照冰箱的高度1.86米切割打捆。整个计划的实施耗费了巨大的人力、物力与财力。对于赵赵来说，项目运行的经费来源、与维族居民的沟通、长距离电缆的铺设方式等每个环节都是他主动参与、介入社会的方式。
《西装》的产生源于赵赵全家赴美前，去北京连卡佛购买的一件价值近十万元的 Dolce & Gabbana 西装。这件奢侈品引发了他与父母意见分歧的一幕。在看到这件西装时，赵赵的父亲惊诧于一件衣服竟然标注如此高的价格，赵赵的母亲则认为只要给她三千元就可以做出一件一模一样的衣服。赵赵意识到这件西装会引发出三种不同的观念，于是主动引导了事件的延续发展。他当场买下这件西装，父亲勃然大怒，继而拂袖而去。回家后，他邀请父亲以擅长的方式书写对此事的看法，赵赵的父亲于是动笔撰写了一篇近万字的论文，题为《从一件衣服说起》。他又给了母亲三千元人民币钱采买材料，仿制新的西装。透过一篇文章和两件衣服，家里三个人的形象立体鲜活起来，观念冲突的产生原因、关于价值的评判标准、人与社会的关系等问题由此延展开来。
2015年8月12日，天津发生了重大爆炸，赵赵第一时间赶往现场。从那里带回一块被爆炸冲击的玻璃，它属于离爆炸中心不远的一处民居，破损的玻璃散落在地面，成为一场灾难中遗留的物证。赵赵用相同尺寸的铜板，复制转化了这块玻璃的全部碎片。技术的难度，使得《碎片》的切割与打磨耗费了整整一年的时间。对于赵赵而言，材质转化使得原本属于爆炸现场的玻璃，发生了状态性的改变：一个工业科技的日常产品，被赋予中国古代青铜器的审美意味。
关于2017横滨三年展
2017年横滨三年展在横滨美术馆和横滨红砖仓库1号馆举办，展期共88天，由横滨美术馆馆长逢坂惠理子、Benesse艺术之地直岛国际艺术总监三木あき子和横滨美术馆首席策展人柏木智雄组成的策展团队策划组织，旨在探寻国际展将来的形式和更进一步发展的可能性，创造一个不局限于视觉体验的、融合对话、讨论以及和“共享、共存”的场所。
本届三年展的主题和概念—— “岛屿，星座和加拉帕戈斯”（Islands, Constellations and Galapagos），希望以此 “从各种角度重新审视全球化连结和隔离的状态”。本届三年展由日本和世界各地的大约40位艺术家或团体组成，展出来自日本和世界各地的艺术家们的作品。它像一个少于一般数量的精选的艺术家小型个展的聚集，其中许多艺术家展示了多个作品。这意味着让观众更深入地了解个别艺术家的创意世界，这些世界逐渐连接起来，就像星星或岛屿形成星座和群岛一样。
Yokohama Triennale is an important contemporary art expo in Japan, it is also one of most important Triennale in Asia. The Sixth Yokohama Triennale opened on August 4. Chinese artist Zhao Zhao was invited to exhibit his artworks “Project Taklamakan”, “Suit” and “Fragments” in Yokohama Art Museum, among which, his photographic artwork “Project Taklamakan” was used as background image for the poster of 2017 Yokohama Triennale. In Yokohama Triennale’s official website and Facebook page, Zhao Zhao was announced as “a key figure of 2017 Yokohama Triennale”, and “the first young artist to be officially introduced in Japan”.
In October 2015, Zhao Zhao began working on Project Taklamakan in Xinjiang. He and a thirty-strong team traveled the 4,000 kilometers from Beijing with an 100 kilometer 4-core cable and a refrigerator. After arriving in the northern part of the Taklamakan Desert, they transported these materials into the desert on a refitted Pathfinder. In order to pass strict inspection system, Zhao Zhao played the roles of a contractor and an advertisement director when he interacted with people. After arriving in Lunnan they connected the electricity to a household in the Uyghur community, then trailed the cable out toward the center of the desert. The journey took 23 days and used 10 transformers, in order to prevent any losses in power transmission. The end of the cable successfully powered a double-door refrigerator full of Sinkiang (Xinjiang) Beer for 24 hours in an expansive, uninhabited desert. The 100 kilometer cable, the transformers, and the refrigerator were later sent back to Beijing, where the cable was cut into precise 1.86-meter sections, a measurement strictly based on the height of the refrigerator.The implementation of the project required immense human, material, and financial resources. For him, installing that long cable, interacting with the Uyghur family, finding funding for the project, and passing the strict government inspections became ways for him to actively participate and intervene in society.
Suit stemmed from a trip to Lane Crawford in Beijing to buy a Dolce & Gabbana suit priced at nearly 100,000 RMB, just before Zhao Zhao’s family traveled to the United States.This luxury garment sparked a difference of opinion between him and his parents. On seeing the suit, Zhao Zhao’s father was surprised that an item of clothing could have such a hefty price tag, and Zhao Zhao’s mother thought that she could make an identical suit for 3,000 RMB. Zhao Zhao realized that this suit had inspired three different viewpoints, and was interested to see how the situation would develop. He bought the suit, which angered his father to the point of storming off. After Zhao Zhao returned home, he had his father write an essay about his views; his father wrote a near 10,000 word piece titled Starting with a Suit. Zhao Zhao also gave his mother 3,000 RMB to buy the materials to copy a new suit. Through this essay and these two suits, the opinions of three family members are vividly represented – revealing the reasons behind their differences of opinion, their standards for measuring value, and their relationships to the rest of society.
In August 2015, a major explosion rocked the city of Tianjin. Zhao Zhao, was one of the first to arrive at the scene. He returned with a piece of broken glass from the impact of the explosion, taken from a residence not far from the epicenter, where now only scattered piles of broken glass remain as evidence of this tragedy. The artist recreated the fragments of glass in copper plates. A technically difficult process, the making of Fragments required an entire year of cutting and polishing. For Zhao Zhao, the transformation of the original glass from the explosion site into an everyday industrial object, combined with its aesthetic similarity to Chinese bronze, with its green patina, was symbolic of historical and temporal impermanence.
About 2017 Yokohama Triennale
The 2017 Yokohama Triennale was held in Yokohama Art Museum and Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No.1 over the duration of 88 days. The curatorial team consisted of Aisaka Eriko, Director of Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, Miki Aikiko, Art Director of Benesse Art Site Naoshima, and Kashiwagi Tomoh, Chief Curator of Yokohama Art Museum. The curatorial team aims to explore the future possibilities of international art expos through creating a space where “Sharing and Coexistence” can integrate with dialogue and discussion, thus reaching out beyond the limitations of visual experience.
The theme of this year’s Triennale is – “Islands, Constellations and Galapagos”, it addresses the concept of “re-analyzing the globalized connectivity and isolation through a multitude of perceptions”. Works in diverse media by approximately 40 artists or groups from Japan and the world are exhibited. It resembles an aggregation of small solo exhibitions by a smaller-than-usual number of carefully selected artists, with many of them showing multiple works. This is intended to give the viewers a deeper understanding of individual artists’ creative worlds, and at the same time, to embody the image of these worlds gradually connecting like stars or islands forming constellations and archipelagoes.